ASIAN AMERICAN LITERARY REVIEW RELEASES SPECIAL ISSUE EXPLORING LEGACIES OF THE VIETNAM WAR, COMMEMORATING 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF FALL OF SAIGON

April 30, 2015 marked the 40th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon, the end of a war that claimed the lives of an estimated 58,260 American troops and over 4 million Southeast Asians across Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. In the U.S. today, “Vietnam” signifies not a country but a lasting syndrome that haunts American politics and society, from debates about foreign policy to popular culture. But what of the millions of Southeast Asian refugees the War created? What, in this moment of commemoration and reflection, are the lasting legacies of the Vietnam War / American War for Southeast Asian diasporic communities?

(Re)Collecting the Vietnam War, a special issue of TheAsian American Literary Review slated for release in late summer 2015, poses these questions to leading artists, writers, and thinkers. Novel in form and approach, the issue is an innovative teaching tool, contemplating the conflict as both remembered and traumatic event through a wealth of original multimedia art, a sweeping flipbook animation running the length of the collection, literary and scholarly engagements, and more.